Images via @OfficialUSLecce and @Inter on Twitter
Deep into pre-season for many of the top European leagues, transfer speculation is typically rife and unsurprisingly much of it focuses around either the biggest European clubs or the Premier League, such is the nature of it. Striking are the rumours around Wojciech Szczęsny being pushed out of Juventus this summer, and it has been rumoured in the Italian press that fellow countryman Arkadiusz Milik will leave as well, with a number of fellow Serie A clubs and some Premier League sides potentially interested in signing him.
Serie A has for a long time been home to a lot of Polish talent, ranging from those with bigger reputations to oftentimes being the first step outside Poland in various players’ careers. With Filip Marchwiński heading to the Italian top-flight, and Jakub Piotrowski and young Jakub Krzyżanowski reportedly on their way as well, not to mention it already being the league in which players like Piotr Zieliński, Kacper Urbański and Łukasz Skorupski ply their trade, I thought to take a look at why this is the case.
Dealing again if I may with those rumours around Szczęsny and Milik, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both remain in Italy. Supposedly the most interested club in Szczęsny is Napoli, although those reports have died down more recently and a return to England has been mooted in both the Italian and Polish press. Milik has long spoken about his desire to one day play in the Premier League, although he has more recently frequently reiterated how comfortable he feels living in Italy, so that is very much a situation that could go either way. Also rumoured to be up for sale is Nicola Zalewski, reportedly no longer fitting in at Roma. Interestingly enough however, there is allegedly no club interested in signing Zalewski at present.
As for those incomings, Marchwiński has officially signed for Lecce and Krzyżanowski’s potential move to Torino is reportedly in very advanced stages. Piotrowski is now the second Polish midfielder firmly linked with Udinese this summer after Bartosz Slisz, and Karol Świderski is reportedly going to be heading back to Hellas Verona once again.
By far the most interesting rumours are those surrounding Jakub Kiwior. 18 months on from signing for Arsenal, it looks like he is falling even further behind the other established names in the pecking order in North London. Kiwior made his name playing for Spezia in Serie A, and Italian clubs are interested in bringing him back on a loan deal. The most concrete rumours were pointing in the direction of Inter, although other journalists have dismissed these reports. Purely speculating here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he heads to Milan, given they are reportedly in the market for a centre-back either on a permanent deal or on loan.
With all of these transfer happenings going on around Serie A, I was struck by the sheer number of Polish players who either have played or are playing in the league. Deciding to dig a little deeper, I tried to understand why Italian clubs and Polish players seem to be linked in a manner unlike elsewhere.
Since Serie A rose to a position of prominence, their clubs have often looked to central and eastern Europe for talent, which is obviously where Poland comes in. Perhaps it’s the years Zbigniew Boniek spent at Juventus and Roma, or perhaps it’s a more recent thing from the early 2010s onwards, but it is noticeable how often Polish players end up playing in Italy, usually making more of a name for themselves there than in Poland. Standout examples off the top of my head include the aforementioned Zieliński and Kiwior, as well as Kamil Glik and perhaps most notoriously Krzysztof Piątek, who had his best ever season during his debut year in Italy in 2018-19.
Trying to ascertain why exactly this is, I thought that it can’t wholly be off past Polish players being emulated by younger ones. A more likely reason leads me to a comment Szczęsny himself made recently about clubs viewing Polish players as “cheap labour”, and despite a grand history and clubs with huge reputations, Serie A finds itself in a financially weak position compared to England and Spain. This is probably therefore why nowadays many younger Polish players are heading to Italy; not only is it a good level of football with plenty of prestige still attached, but it makes sense that Italian clubs are not spending huge chunks of money on unproven young talent in the same way English clubs are able to.
Take Marchwiński as an example: here is one of the young stars of Lech Poznań’s academy, now 22 years old and with experience both at European and international level, yet Lecce are able to sign him for just €3m. Granted, his contract at Lech was up in a year but it is nonetheless a pretty low amount no matter which way you view it.
Of course, this does not have to be a bad thing. You look at the examples I gave before; Serie A has moulded Zieliński into a wonderful football player and Piątek made Genoa a huge profit when they took a chance on signing him as a 23 year old out of the Ekstraklasa. For some Polish players a move to Italy won’t always work out, and I could give plenty of recent examples, but similarly when it does work it tends to be really beneficial for the club, the player and for the Polish national team. Indeed, Kacper Urbański is the best and most recent example of this, and I look forward to seeing him improve even further with Bologna this coming season.
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